Life is Good
by msk1701
Summary: Part II of The Way Things Should Be...short, fluffy, and transitional...what more do you need to know?
1. Chapter 1

Lee Adama strode through _Galactica_'s corridors with a bounce in his step as he headed towards the CAG's office. It was late at night, according the ship's clock, and he had pulled a double CAP that day but he wasn't tired. He felt like singing, if anything, but it would have been strange to have the CAG singing in the halls, so he softly hummed to himself instead.

Life was good.

He and Kara had been slowly rebuilding their relationship from the ground up since that day in the bunkroom two weeks before. It began quietly at first; many of the older pilots still felt protectively about Dee and Sam was well-known and well-liked among the fleet. They spent more time together in private, learning how to talk to each other again; warming back up to the banter they once shared.

Then they began being together in public; eating together, being in the rec room at the same time without one of them needing to walk out. Kara found that more and more of her shifts were beginning to coincide with those of a certain CAG. The crew was getting used to the fact that the two of them were friends once again, glad that the tension between the fleet's two best pilots was gone but wondering if it was going to last.

All the while, Kara quietly began making preparations to divorce her husband, with Lee using what clout he had to make sure that nothing about what they were doing got out and got the rumor mill churning. They wanted to be accepted by the crew, especially the Admiral, when they were ready to come out and announce that they were a couple. Until then, they both wanted things to be as discrete as possible.

Lee had gone with Kara to provide moral support when she went to get Sam to sign off on their divorce the week after she and Lee had reconnected. At her insistence he agreed to wait out in the corridor when she went into Sam's cabin. She had said that it was her fault that it had taken so long for them to be together, and she wanted to be the one who made sure things were right.

Having Lee nearby had been a good idea, though. Things had quickly gotten out of control when Kara tried to explain to her soon to be ex-husband why she wanted a divorce.

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"_Yeah, well, that's not good enough," Sam growled as he roughly grabbed Kara's arms and pushed her against a bulkhead. _

_Kara struggled to break free from his grip, but he held firm. His fingers squeezed so tightly that blood stopped flowing to her hands._

"_Let go, Sam."_

"_Yeah? What if I don't want to?"_

_It became painfully clear just how little the man knew about her, despite having married her. No one laid a hand on Starbuck unless they were prepared to take her down or had made their peace with the gods._

_Lee stepped into the room ready to jump in but stood back. Just in case. Kara didn't need murder added to her vast collection of infractions._

"_Let her go, Sam." The ice-cold venom in his voice made it clear that Lee himself was more than willing to kill with his bare hands, but Sam was too angry to care._

"_Oh yeah? I'm twice your size. What are you going to do about it?"_

_Lee smirked. The man really was clueless._

"_Absolutely nothing."_

_Sam's puzzled look turned into one of shock and pain as Kara's knee smashed into his groin. His grip on her arms loosened so that Kara could bring them up and use them to shove Sam back far enough for her to drive a foot into his solar plexus. _

_A pained and winded Sam fell to his knees. He looked up-his vision blurred-to see Kara's fist flying towards his face as he received the right hook he had heard about but had never actually seen. He had been skeptical about the stories, but being on the business end of Kara's fist made it abundantly clear that words couldn't describe what she could do with one punch._

_Once the room stopped spinning, Sam saw Kara kneeling over him; pen and papers in hand, not a trace of emotion in her eyes._

"_Sign the papers, Sam."_

"_So that's it, huh?" he spat. "You're just going to give up on us?"_

"_There is no 'us', Sam. There never was. I'm sorry, but I never loved you… you were just a quick lay that got out of control. I settled on you because I was too afraid of what I really wanted."_

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Lee couldn't help but feel for Sam when he watched the man sign the divorce papers. The look in Sam's eyes reminded him of all the times he felt as if his heart had been ripped from his chest. Kara and he had been dancing around their love for one another for years and the Pyramid player ended up in the middle of an all out war between them.

His empathy had stopped far short of sympathy, though, because he had never liked the man. Even before the end of the worlds, Sam Anders had come across as a smarmy son of a bitch on the court and in interviews. And if the fist Lee had taken to the back as he and Kara were walking out of Sam's cabin was any indication, the rumors of Sam being a cheat were probably true as well.

Three broken ribs, four broken teeth, one completely knocked out tooth, a fractured orbital bone, and a concussion courtesy of Lee's fists and a bulkhead would make Sam think twice about hitting people when their backs were turned again, though. It also probably taught the man a lesson about the rule about getting pilots angry that _Galactica_'s crew had amended months before: Apollo put you in hack, Starbuck put you in sickbay, but you never made Lee Adama angry because he might put you in the morgue.

But, none of that mattered anymore.

Lee arrived at the hatch to the CAG's office, opened it, and stepped through to be greeted with the sight of Kara Thrace dressed in sweats, unrolling a couple of sleeping bags on top of a foam mat she had laid on the floor. They had been sleeping like this whenever their schedules matched up; something Lee tried to make happen as often as possible. Kara looked up when she heard the hatch open and her face brightened and she flashed Lee that pure, naked smile that melted him from the inside out.

"Hey," Kara said brightly as she smoothed out the sleeping bags.

Lee closed and dogged the hatch. "Hey, yourself."

He smiled as two arms snaked around his chest and a small kiss was placed on the back of his neck before Kara molded herself to his body.

"Did I do something wrong, Lee?" Kara's voice was muffled as she spoke into his back.

"No. Why?"

"Because I've been in CIC for two days in a row….you know I hate it in there."

Lee couldn't help but smile even wider as he turned in her arms to face the most beautiful woman in the universe; the look of mock hurt on her face was absolutely adorable. He cupped Kara's face and said, "Well, I figured spending a couple of duty shifts doing something you hated would make you appreciate me more," before leaning in to kiss her on the nose.

Kara's face scrunched up as she tried not to smile. "I always appreciate you, Lee," she said as she leaned in closer for a proper kiss. "Even when you're acting like a stuck-up jerk."

"And I appreciate you, Kara…even when you're acting like an insubordinate pain in my ass."

"I'm always like that."

"Guess that means I always appreciate you, then."

Lee closed the last few fractions of an inch between them and kissed Kara with everything he had, drawing her closer to him with one arm while he fumbled for the light switch with his free hand.

The lights in the CAG's office went out with a click and Lee and Kara sank down onto the floor in the dark.


	2. Chapter 2

Kara awoke from happy dreams of Lee to an even happier reality where the two of them lay together on top of a mat and sleeping bags on the floor of the CAG's office.

She was in the dark with the comforting weight of two arms wrapped protectively around her. She smiled as she nuzzled Lee's chest, deeply breathing in his scent. That was all she needed to wake up nowadays: a good whiff of Eau d'Lee Adama. She felt Lee's chest rise as he took a deep breath himself, breathing in her scent as he woke up. Kara's smile widened as she listened to Lee let out a happy sigh and shifted his body so that he could kiss the top of her head.

Kara scooted upwards until she was completely lying on top of Lee, their chins touching, their hands entangling themselves in the other's hair. She looked into his now open eyes as her own became accustomed to the faint light that filtered in from under the door and into the CAG's office, loving him all the more as they moved in for the first kiss of the morning.

"Good morning," Lee said with a voice still gravely from sleep.

"Good morning," Kara replied, her cheeks hurting from smiling so much as Lee leaned up for another kiss. They were both doing that a lot lately: smiling and kissing. Kara was sure she had never been this happy. And judging from Lee's contented breathing as he slowly ran his hands up and down her back, he was feeling the same way.

"Lee?"

"Hmmm?"

"I could stay like this forever."

"Me too."

Kara let her head sink back down onto Lee's chest and listened to the comforting beat of his heart. It was another thing they were doing a lot lately: simply lie in each other's arms,

"We should get up." When did she become the responsible one?

"Just a few more minutes."

Lee kissed her again and, with a satisfied sigh, Kara let all thoughts leave her mind and allowed Lee to, if only for a moment, wrap her in a secure bubble and take her away from the rigors of protecting the last remnants of humanity. She knew he would do everything he could to keep her safe, just as he knew she would do the same for him. She didn't trust anyone else like that. Just the man she loved.


End file.
